Boulder County students face new mental health challenges

Monarch High School seniors Cheyenne Kramer and Jordan Crist paint a banner for an assembly as part of the school's The FIRE Within suicide prevention program. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

Natural disasters and the economic downturn have created new mental health challenges for students in Boulder County and obstacles for service providers who are trying to help students cope.

Janine D'Anniballe, director of emergency and community services for Mental Health Partners, said students in the St. Vrain Valley and Boulder Valley school districts are increasingly struggling with anxiety.

"Unfortunately, youth today experience a lot of stress and distress and that's become the norm in Boulder County," D'Anniballe said. "We have a lot of kids working through mental health issues."

MHP professionals, who currently provide services in middle and high schools throughout BVSD and SVVSD, blame some of the stress on the struggles area families have faced during the recession, the Fourmile Fire in 2010 and the September flood.

Popularity of social media is also increasing peer pressure and harassment for local students creating a "perfect storm of stress," D'Anniballe said.

Boulder County organizations are searching for new ways to help students cope with the added anxiety, especially through programs in the school districts.

Denver-based nonprofit Carson J. Spencer brought its suicide prevention program The FIRE Within to Boulder County in the fall of 2012. The program is in its second year at Monarch High School in Louisville and seeks to raise awareness about area mental health resources and reduce teen suicide.

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Jess Stohlmann-Rainey, program director Carson J. Spencer, said youth suicides have increased in Boulder County since 2006, according to data collected by the organization and the county's Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results. The nonprofit began focusing on suicide prevention methods to combat the data, she said.

The FIRE Within program professionals work with a business class at Monarch High once a week that combines entrepreneurship and social change. Students build a business plan around suicide prevention in their community.

One of the classes focused on helping parents talk to students about distress — an issue that student-conducted surveys revealed is contributing to increased suicide and suicidal thoughts, Stohlmann-Rainey said. The class wrote an instructional book with tips on how to talk to teens about difficult issues and sells it in the community.

"It's revenue generating, which stays with the student business, but it also goes toward community needs," Stohlmann-Rainey said. "Then the next year, the class builds on what the students did the year before."

The program is not currently in St. Vrain Valley schools, but one of the district's superintendents Connie Syferd said they are looking into The FIRE Within and other similar options for the future.

A new program will not likely launch this fall, Syferd said, because the district is focused on hiring mental health professionals to provide services to students in middle and high schools. The new hires will replace existing service providers from MHP and are not an expansion of services.

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